I have it on my bench today getting all the downloads and such. It is a MAC PRO 12 core, 3.06 processors, 64g ram, 2tb on board, 27in cineama display, and a 4tb firewire drive, pretty friggin fast so far. Downloading FCP X, Compressor, and motion.

__________________
" The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything." Straight Out Da Trailah!

I have an early '08 (8 core, 16 GB of RAM) and it is still faster than most desktops being sold today. The boot drive went bad so I bought an SSD, but haven't stuck it in. I run three displays off it - a 30" and two 24". I code, so this works fine for me.

I need the RAM less than I need the CPUs - I run multiple VMs to work in. OSX as the host, Linux and different versions of Windows depending on the project.

For what they are, MacPros are fairly competitive in price - try pricing a Wintel machine with 4 to 12 cores with up to 64 GB of RAM capacity and 5 drive bays, and able to drive 6 displays. Finally, find one that will run OSX.

House payments? Two. And I will earn it back in less than a month. Plus it is tax deductible.

I assume you need all that horsepower for your editing stuff, but I'm curious if an off-the-shelf iMac could do it, and if so what differences you'd have between them.

These days not a lot except for heavy rendering and such when needed in things like multiple layers and so on. Plus the faster the box, the faster the video format (codec) conversions and such as well. I work with Panasonic P2 in all the HD DVC PRO formats as well as AVEC Intra, and also will use both AVCCAM and at times even formats (file structures) from DSLR's of both Canon and Panasonic persuasion.

__________________
" The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything." Straight Out Da Trailah!